Local sports stars?

Re: “More than a handful” (PostBag, Dec 31).

Thanin Bumrungsap goes to lengths to try and show how many Thai athletes were successful on the international stage this past year.

Nonetheless, I still think this newspaper was correct in stating previously that “only a handful of Thai athletes were successful on the international stage in 2022”.

Mr Bumrungsap lists the names of successful Thai athletes in sports such as golf, tennis and motor racing etc, in addition to volleyball. While that is all well and good, I’m not sure how successful the athletes really were in their chosen sports; and even if they were, these are not exactly the most popular sports in the world.

I think that we can all agree that football is the most important sport in the world. And when was the last time that Thailand qualified for this? Enough said.

And what about the most popular sports in North America, such as baseball, basketball, American football, and ice hockey, or rugby in the Pacific? How many Thais participated in these?

Until Thai schools make greater efforts to encourage youngsters to participate in sports, I’m afraid that Thailand can expect the same lacklustre results for a while. For most Thai kids, the only form of sports that they get is an hour of PE class per week. Quite clearly, this is not enough. Thai kids need at least double the amount of physical education classes per week than they are getting now. And they also need to be encouraged to participate in sports after school instead of just playing games on their phones, as has been per usual up until now. AN ENQUIRING FOREIGNER